How to turn off badges in iOS 15 – and cut down your anxiety

You don’t need to know how many emails you’ve left unread

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Quick steps

Consider this How-To guide a public service with a very personal origin.

Recently, I posted on Twitter an image of my iOS 15 Mail app notification badge, which showed 40,101 unread emails across three accounts, with the quip:  “The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.”

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem pic.twitter.com/RJr8kkPpb3June 2, 2022

It sparked a stunning response with many noting that just seeing my number of unread emails causedthemanxiety. Soon, others were posting their own homepages littered with badge tallies for calls, emails, Reminders, and Messages.

While there were many suggestions for how to achieve “inbox zero,” many others had a simpler request: “How do we turn off these badges?”

It was an excellent question. Few of us will ever get ahead of our unanswered calls, unread or opened emails, or the far-too-frequent unsolicited text messages. Seeing those rising numbers as little red badges affixed to homepage apps is a ready source of anxiety for many (as attested to by hundreds on Twitter) and making them disappear for good is a smart and easy way to make that iPhone anxiety go away.

Tools and Requirements

Turning off iOS 15 Badges

For any iOS applications, both stock and those you add yourself,the instructions are the samefor removing the red badge notifications for app-related tasks you have not tackled. Note that not all apps support badges and as such won’t feature the Badge toggle. Here are the steps to follow if you want toturn off iOS 15 Badges for good.

Find Notifications settings

Final thoughts

At the moment, there is no way to turn off all badges for all apps. Perhaps that will change iniOS 16. Even so, just muting the badges for Mail and Messages could have a significant impact on your wellbeing. Sure, the unread emails will still be in your inbox, but now your home screen won’t be shouting the accumulated number at you every single time you open your iPhone.

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A 38-year industry veteran andaward-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoffmakes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, theToday Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.

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